Timberwolves Rumors: Interest remains in Iman Shumpert?

According to a recent report, the Timberwolves continue to have interest in trading for Cleveland Cavaliers guard Iman Shumpert.

Back in October, multiple reports surfaced indicating that the Timberwolves were interested in Cavs guard Iman Shumpert. Now, the rumor has returned.

At the time, perhaps the most-suggested swap included backup point guard Tyus Jones. The idea of a one-to-one trade was a bit tough to envision, even as Shumpert was coming off the worst season of his career in 2015-16. Jones himself was coming off of a mediocre rookie year, and the jury is very much still out on what the Minnesota native and former Duke Blue Devil can do in the NBA.

Indeed, the one place that the Wolves seemed to have somewhat of a glut in preseason was point guard, between starter Ricky Rubio, Jones, and their most-recent first-round draft selection, Kris Dunn. And at that time, Minnesota was hanging onto veteran guard John Lucas III, too.

But the trigger was never pulled, almost certainly due to hesitation on the Cavs’ end. While they still don’t have a true, proven backup point guard, they were quite sparse at the two-guard and in terms of long-range shooting. Since then, however, the Cavs have dealt for Kyle Korver, and while Shumpert is still averaging north of 25 minutes per game, more than a fifth of his playing time has actually come at the point guard spot. And that’s not ideal, of course.

It seems unlikely that the Cavs would trade a productive, 40.3 percent three-point shooter who is a solid one-on-one defender for a still-largely-unproven point guard in Jones.

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On the other hand, Cleveland will be getting J.R. Smith back in a few weeks, so that would soften the blow of losing Shumpert. Plus, if the Cavs are convinced that newcomer Derrick Williams could stay beyond his current 10-day contract, that could allow Richard Jefferson to continue playing some minutes at shooting guard.

The Cavs would no doubt ask for Ricky Rubio, who they could view as a souped-up version of last year’s Matthew Dellevadova for their second unit, albeit with more dynamic offensive play-making skills, better overall length and defense, but worse scoring punch/shooting ability. But it’s tough to see the Wolves making that deal straight-up.

Shumpert does have two more years left on his deal, so Minnesota would have to surrender some value. I wouldn’t put it completely past Tom Thibodeau and Scott Layden to pull the trigger on a Rubio-for-Shumpert deal, but I would push something like Jones + Shabazz Muhammad and/or Nemanja Bjelica before moving Rubio in this deal. Shumpert’s past shooting seasons have been shaky enough for Minnesota to pause before completing this deal.

One also wonders whether or not Zach LaVine‘s ACL tear could force the hand of the Wolves’ front office on a move like this — and maybe ‘forcing the hand’ isn’t a fair characterization; maybe it’s more like pushing the Wolves over the edge. The fact that LaVine won’t be back until sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas last year and won’t be full strength until at least March of 2018, plus the hard truth that it simply isn’t guaranteed that he’ll fully recover (yes, it’s likely, but far from a sure thing) could very well play into a decision such as this.

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This is absolutely a situation to keep an eye on; a contender with a need (backup point guard) and a position with a small overstock (shooting guard, once J.R. Smith returns) is always a potential trade partner as we head into the final days before the deadline.